Samantha Barks Lets Us Tag Along at Her Red Carpet Debut

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"The red carpet is kind of a surreal experience," says British star Samantha Barks, 22. "There's nothing normal about it, so for me the most important thing is to maintain some normality right until the point you get out of the car." Barks, who plays Eponine in Les Miserables (her performance of "On my Own" was stunning!), invited Teen Vogue to share her first red carpet moment in New York at the film's premiere on Monday night at the Ziegfeld Theater with a fancy after party at the MoMA, where she toasted the night with her famous costars. "It's like girl heaven for me, just trying on different makeup looks, working up different hair." Read on for her red carpet ritual!
Congratulations on the film! You looked incredible last night. What were you wearing?
Thank you so much! I wore Stella McCartney. I also wore Stella for the London premiere. I just felt so honored to be wearing her dress. She's British, and just so cool! My fitting was in London at her office and it was one of the coolest moments of my life.
Walk me through your day getting ready.
I'm staying at the Mandarin Oriental, which is close to the venue, The Ziegfeld. I woke up at six in the morning and started having my hair and makeup done [her team: Creighton Bowman and Gita Bass, stylist: Elizabeth Saltzman] because I had to go do The Today Show, and that was so much fun! I've always seen it whenever I've been in America, so it was really exciting to be on it. We were all dressed for the wind with this big fluffy Michael Kors coat on, and it was Christmas at best for me. I loved it!
Wow, that's an early start!
After I did Sirius radio and The Today Show, I had a nap because I had been up so early. It's important because obviously I wanted to look fresh, since I knew I had the red carpet coming up. I didn't want to look like I had been up since six in the morning.
Smart girl! Those power naps really make a difference.
Yes! At 3 p.m., I had a bath and Creighton and Gita came back, and we allowed two hours for hair and makeup. It's so nice to get ready in a calm environment. We had a chat about the right makeup and hair to have with the dress. Then at about 5, my dress arrived, along with all the jewelry. I had a half an hour left over so that everyone could do any last minute changes. For instance, we decided last minute that it would be nice to have a little bit of a pink lip. It was a quite a glamorous dress, and it was nice to keep a fresh look and have a little bit of pink lipstick. Little tweaks like that. Once we've tried the dress on in full hair and makeup, we decided there was some jewelry that we were going to go far with. But we thought that the dress actually had so much glitz and glamour on its own that it didn't really need to add any jewelry, and that that would detract from the dress and not add to the look.
What happened when you left to go to the Ziegfeld?
The minute I got out of the car, you literally get on the red carpet, and it was so crazy. It was like this sea of photographers. Then just after me, Eddie Redmayne arrived, so it was cool because then we got some pictures together. It was really cool just to see everybody. We've all really spent the last two weeks together. I'm always excited to see the girls wearing such short glamorous looks they're rocking out. The dresses were totally stunning last night.
The premiere was so special and everywhere you looked, there was a celebrity. Did you meet any cool celebrities?
Yeah well, when I saw Bon Jovi...I didn't actually meet him, but I saw him in passing, and I was like, "Bon Jovi! What?!" And Zach Braff was there, and I follow him on Twitter. He'd been tweeting lots of things about Les Mis and how excited he was about it. It was funny because he came up to me, and he was like, "Dude!" I was like "Oh my God, I've been retweeting you." I think he's great.
It must have been a magical night. What did you do when the night was over?
I hung out with my family back at the Mandarin. I was so happy to spend time with my family because traveling around so much, you really cherish the actual quality time you get to see your parents and grandparents. We all came back to the hotel, and I got into my PJs straight away. It's just nice to get comfortable and relax. So we were chatting, and I was in my comfy PJs. It was hilarious.
How nice to have your family there!
It was so nice to have my parents come over! And it was my grandparents' first time in New York! I did a concert on Saturday night with Russell Crowe, and my family came and saw it. They also saw Mary Poppins on Broadway, which they always wanted to see. It was exciting. It was so great to get to see them, to get to have breakfast with them. It's very rare I get to see them at the moment because of this press tour, and so literally just getting to chat for a few hours here and there has meant the world to me!

Exclusive! The Les Miserables breakout star invites Teen Vogue behind the scenes as she gets ready for her first U.S. premiere.

"The red carpet is kind of a surreal experience," says British star Samantha Barks, 22. "There's nothing normal about it, so for me the most important thing is to maintain some normality right until the point you get out of the car." Barks, who plays Eponine in Les Miserables (her performance of "On my Own" was stunning!), invited Teen Vogue to share her first red carpet moment in New York at the film's premiere on Monday night at the Ziegfeld Theater with a fancy after party at the MoMA, where she toasted the night with her famous costars. "It's like girl heaven for me, just trying on different makeup looks, working up different hair." Read on for her red carpet ritual!
Congratulations on the film! You looked incredible last night. What were you wearing?
Thank you so much! I wore Stella McCartney. I also wore Stella for the London premiere. I just felt so honored to be wearing her dress. She's British, and just so cool! My fitting was in London at her office and it was one of the coolest moments of my life.
Walk me through your day getting ready.
I'm staying at the Mandarin Oriental, which is close to the venue, The Ziegfeld. I woke up at six in the morning and started having my hair and makeup done [her team: Creighton Bowman and Gita Bass, stylist: Elizabeth Saltzman] because I had to go do The Today Show, and that was so much fun! I've always seen it whenever I've been in America, so it was really exciting to be on it. We were all dressed for the wind with this big fluffy Michael Kors coat on, and it was Christmas at best for me. I loved it!
Wow, that's an early start!
After I did Sirius radio and The Today Show, I had a nap because I had been up so early. It's important because obviously I wanted to look fresh, since I knew I had the red carpet coming up. I didn't want to look like I had been up since six in the morning.
Smart girl! Those power naps really make a difference.
Yes! At 3 p.m., I had a bath and Creighton and Gita came back, and we allowed two hours for hair and makeup. It's so nice to get ready in a calm environment. We had a chat about the right makeup and hair to have with the dress. Then at about 5, my dress arrived, along with all the jewelry. I had a half an hour left over so that everyone could do any last minute changes. For instance, we decided last minute that it would be nice to have a little bit of a pink lip. It was a quite a glamorous dress, and it was nice to keep a fresh look and have a little bit of pink lipstick. Little tweaks like that. Once we've tried the dress on in full hair and makeup, we decided there was some jewelry that we were going to go far with. But we thought that the dress actually had so much glitz and glamour on its own that it didn't really need to add any jewelry, and that that would detract from the dress and not add to the look.
What happened when you left to go to the Ziegfeld?
The minute I got out of the car, you literally get on the red carpet, and it was so crazy. It was like this sea of photographers. Then just after me, Eddie Redmayne arrived, so it was cool because then we got some pictures together. It was really cool just to see everybody. We've all really spent the last two weeks together. I'm always excited to see the girls wearing such short glamorous looks they're rocking out. The dresses were totally stunning last night.
The premiere was so special and everywhere you looked, there was a celebrity. Did you meet any cool celebrities?
Yeah well, when I saw Bon Jovi...I didn't actually meet him, but I saw him in passing, and I was like, "Bon Jovi! What?!" And Zach Braff was there, and I follow him on Twitter. He'd been tweeting lots of things about Les Mis and how excited he was about it. It was funny because he came up to me, and he was like, "Dude!" I was like "Oh my God, I've been retweeting you." I think he's great.
It must have been a magical night. What did you do when the night was over?
I hung out with my family back at the Mandarin. I was so happy to spend time with my family because traveling around so much, you really cherish the actual quality time you get to see your parents and grandparents. We all came back to the hotel, and I got into my PJs straight away. It's just nice to get comfortable and relax. So we were chatting, and I was in my comfy PJs. It was hilarious.
How nice to have your family there!
It was so nice to have my parents come over! And it was my grandparents' first time in New York! I did a concert on Saturday night with Russell Crowe, and my family came and saw it. They also saw Mary Poppins on Broadway, which they always wanted to see. It was exciting. It was so great to get to see them, to get to have breakfast with them. It's very rare I get to see them at the moment because of this press tour, and so literally just getting to chat for a few hours here and there has meant the world to me!

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Exclusive! The Les Miserables breakout star invites Teen Vogue behind the scenes as she gets ready for her first U.S. premiere.